First in Her heart
by Coldman9
Summary: It's Orihime's wedding day, and Ichigo's decided to drop by, even if he didn't get an invitation. Why? Because he's realized something, and he needs to talk to her. Sucky summary, but just read the story.


I don't own Bleach, Kubo Tite does.

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**First in her Heart**

It was a bright, sunny, almost cloudless day; a day befitting a wedding and even more so considering who the bride was. Everyone she had ever met would agree that anything other than a sunny day for her wedding would be utterly unfair treatment by Fate, Destiny, the gods, or whatever all-knowing all-powerful force was in charge. As such, life was fair and the day was sunny. But for one person walking up the steps of the church, the sunny day held little more than his contempt. He stopped for a second to look at the sign in front of the doors to the ceremony hall.

_Wedding of_

_Uryu Ishida/ Orihime Inoue _

_Ceremony begins at noon_

Ichigo ran a hand through his orange locks, and let out an exasperated sigh. Under his eyes were dark circles from not having gotten any decent sleep in a few days. Unlike all the other guests in the building, he was casually dressed in a long sleeve shirt and pants. As he opened the door and snuck in, he was suddenly struck by a desire to have learned how to sneak around places without being caught. The lobby was luckily empty and he was able to slip in unnoticed. The doors opposite the front doors led the cathedral room, where the ceremony was going to be held. To his right and to his left were different hallways, leading who knows where.

Scratching his head and looking both ways, Ichigo decided to go with his gut and headed right. The hallway turned shortly after he entered it and was lined with doors on either side, often set at different lengths apart. He stopped at each door and put his ear to it, listening for any sounds of activity or noise. He opened the door to one he heard noise coming from and saw a few of the other doctors that worked with him and Uryu playing cards with Renji, Ikkaku, and Rangiku; Rangiku using her considerable bust size to an advantage. Ichigo slipped the door shut quickly and quietly and continued on.

As he kept going he suddenly heard a commotion coming down the hall. He looked around and was able to determine that it was coming from in front of him, and heading towards him too. Ichigo slipped into a room he had deemed as empty and moved against the wall to keep from being spotted or detected at all. Unfortunately the commotion also followed him into the room, and he caught onto the opening door quick enough to slip into a closet.

"-st listen to me Ishida." An annoyed and angry female voice said, "I have a bad feeling, it's best if he doesn't show up."

"Kurosaki is a friend Arisawa." Uryu said forcefully, "You had no right to keep him from receiving his invitation."

"You know how Orihime used to feel about him." Tatsuki said more forcefully, "And you're saying you want him here, at your wedding?"

"He is still a friend, and deserves to be treated as such."

Ichigo looked through the cracks in the door and saw Tatsuki and Uryu in a glaring contest, neither one willing to give in easily.

'_So it was Tatsuki._' Ichigo thought, finally discovering why he hadn't received an invitation to the wedding.

He had only discovered about the wedding a few days ago, after a few friends called him about his own invitation. He hadn't understood why he didn't receive one himself, or why he didn't catch on sooner. Everyone at the hospital had been acting strange but he just assumed that was them, he never thought Uryu and Orihime had decided to get married; he'd never even heard the announcement.

"What do you have against Kurosaki?" Uryu asked, bringing Ichigo's attention back to the argument.

"I don't have anything against him; I just don't want him here today." Tatsuki kept looking at Uryu, "You're both doctors, but you're on your way up, Ichigo's not even trying. You're good for Orihime, he isn't."

"Okay, but that doesn't explain why you don't want him here." Uryu pointed out.

"Fine." Tatsuki sighed in defeat, "You've helped Orihime a lot, but I don't think she ever resolved her feelings for him. And a lot of brides get jittery on their big day. If he were to show up, who knows what she might do."

"Very well." Uryu pushed up his glasses, "If you're that concerned about him showing up then I won't call him. I'll deal with him being mad at me later."

"Thanks Ishida." Tatsuki sighed in relief.

"However, you will be helping me explain to him why he wasn't invited." Uryu said as he led Tatsuki back out into the hallway.

Ichigo waited a few minutes until he was certain he was alone and snuck out again. He had to admit that he was more than a little angry at Tatsuki, but he did understand her reasoning. He had always thought the kindness and concern Orihime showed him was the same she showed everyone else, but when he heard differently he began to question what it meant. As he started searching rooms again he thought back over the years. Whenever he had been through a rough time, she had always been there to help him through. She was always kind, but had always seemed nervous around him for some reason. And it had only occurred to him just a few nights ago why that had been.

Orihime Inoue had been in love with him, Ichigo Kurosaki.

He began mentally bashing himself every chance he had for not noticing it sooner. It had been pretty damn obvious, staring him in the face all that time. She and Uryu had started dating about a year ago, although that kindness and nervousness he had gotten used to had remained, and that made him worry a bit. Had she continued to feel that way about him while dating Uryu? Ichigo would admit that Uryu wasn't his favorite person in world; in fact he annoyed the hell out of Ichigo. But Ichigo also knew he was a good man, and a great doctor, and Ichigo would trust him with his life. And if Uryu was with Orihime, he deserved to have every bit of her love. But at the same time, Ichigo didn't know what he was really doing there, uninvited at their wedding.

Ichigo ducked again and again as more and more people entered the hallway for one reason or another. He knew he was probably being paranoid or stupid, but he felt like he shouldn't be there, and decided that sneaking around was his best option if he wasn't going to be seen. Eventually he came to the end of the hallway, still not having found what he was looking for and wound up peaking into the cathedral. It was half full already with people. Some he knew, some he didn't know, but all there for two people. With an annoyed growl, Ichigo closed the door he had peaked through and made his way back down the hall to the lobby, which was still unoccupied.

He made his way across and entered the left hallway. There was more noise coming from that side, probably because it had been set aside as a prep area. There were numerous women putting on last minute touch ups to their make-up and dresses and several men whose tuxedo's needed to be fitted at the last second, because a measurement had been too big or too small.

Ichigo had to be more careful as he searched the rooms, less being empty to hide in. And he could have sworn, once or twice, that someone had caught him peaking into a room. Eventually he came to the last door, hoping to all of heaven that he would find what he was looking for. And heaven answered. At first he didn't see anything, but as he leaned into the room he saw her, standing over by the window in her white dress. And he had to say, she looked incredibly beautiful in that dress, with her auburn hair flowing back behind her. Ichigo was frozen for a second, but quickly regained himself and slipped into the room, quietly closing the door behind him.

Orihime didn't look away from the window as he walked up to her, no longer trying to hide his presence. He caught a glimpse of her sideways, her grey eyes and her smile made his heart beat just a little bit faster as he got closer. He stopped when he was few feet from her, still looking out her open window and onto the scene outside.

"Inoue." He called gently.

Orihime turned around, completely surprised at the presence of another person. But when she saw him her surprise turned into a smile and she rushed forward to hug him.

"Kurosaki-kun!" she cried happily, "You made it, that's great."

"Y-Yeah." He said, returned her hug before she let go and backed away.

"Eh, but why are you dressed like that? Couldn't you get a tuxedo?"

"Oh, um, I'm not going to be staying." He gave her a guilty look, "I just came because I needed to talk to you."

"Oh, is everything alright?" She asked, showing that same special concern she only showed him.

"Yeah, everything's fine." He motioned for her to have a seat while he took one himself, "It's just that I've been thinking back over the years. And I have a question." He watched her look at him curiously for a few seconds before he took a deep breath and decided to jump in the shark pit, "How do you . . . did you, feel about me Inoue?"

He watched as Orihime's mouth opened and closed several times. Her face became red as she kept trying to find something to say, but nothing would come out.

"It's fine Inoue." Ichigo said after a few minutes of her trying to say something, "It's just; I never got an invite to your wedding. I didn't even know you and Uryu were engaged until just a few days ago. And that made me really think back over things. Things I've been feeling for a while."

"Kurosaki-kun?" Orihime looked at him with those beautiful, wide open grey eyes of hers, "You don't have to-"

"Inoue please." Ichigo gave her guilty look as he rose up a hand to stop her, "I need to do this, I need to get this off my chest." Ichigo stuck his hands in his pockets, wishing for the first time in his life that he was a smoker, then he'd have something to do instead of look down in guilt about what he was about to say, "I was never really comfortable with you dating Uryu. I never really knew why, it just didn't sit well with me. But I saw how happy you two were together and I buried that feeling so I wouldn't be the jerk. But then I heard you two were getting married, and that dam broke. And now I've been forced to confront everything I never really wanted to."

Ichigo took his hands out of his pockets and ran both of them through his hair. He was tired; he hadn't gotten any sleep last night. But like he had said, he needed to do this.

"I remember that you were always there for me when I needed it Inoue. Always ready to listen and help, with a special concern that you didn't show to anyone else." He risked a glance up and saw surprise on her face, surprise that he had realized it, "And then there are all the other things you showed me that you never did for anyone else. So that got me wondering if you used to have feelings for me; and how much of an idiot I was that I didn't notice it until just recently."

"Kurosaki-kun." Orihime said quietly, but Ichigo didn't stop.

"And now I've realized just why I was uncomfortable with you dating Uryu all this time." He looked right in her eyes this time, "I . . . I'm in love with you Inoue. I've been an idiot not to notice it until now but I am."

"I . . . I . . ." Orihime was trying to find the right words to describe what she was feeling, but Ichigo extended a hand and put a finger against her lips.

"But it's not like I'm here to ask you to run away with me or leave Uryu." Ichigo looked grave as he continued, "He's a good guy, he deserves someone like you and you deserve someone like him. I just had to get this off my chest before it could cause any serious problems with any of us." Ichigo leaned forward, getting off his chair, and planted a gentle kiss on Orihime's cheek, then stood up and gave her a sad, but true, smile, "I want you to be happy Inoue, so have a great, happy life with Uryu."

And with those final words, Ichigo left the room.

This time he didn't care if anyone saw him, he just needed to get out of there. He walked calmly and quickly down to the lobby, taking note that it was 11:55 as he walked. In five minutes she'd be married. In five minutes, he'd lose the woman he had realized he loved. And it hurt, it hurt deeply. Finally Ichigo made it to the lobby and rushed outside, feeling suffocated in the building. He ran down the steps out front and stopped at the fountain in the middle of the courtyard. He looked up at the top, as water was shot into the air and fell back down, he felt like the coins at the bottom of the fountain.

-0-

Orihime couldn't move from the seat, she didn't know if she was sitting for a few seconds or a thousand years before she blinked and everything Ichigo had said set in. She could barely stop the tears from forming in her eyes and falling down her cheeks, her left cheek still felt warm from where he had kissed her. She had wanted so badly to hear him say that he loved her. But he had to say it now, when she was about to be married.

_Knock, knock_!

Orihime quickly wiped the tears off her face, hoping her make-up hadn't smeared or smudged.

"Come in." she said, pushing all the emotions out her voice. She turned around to see Uryu walking in, smiling when he saw her, "Uryu! You can't be here, you shouldn't see me before the wedding!" she desperately begged him with her eyes to leave.

Uryu just smiled at her, a sad smile she saw.

"Are you really just going to let him go like that?" Uryu asked. Orihime's eyes opened in surprise, "I'm sorry for eavesdropping but I overheard your conversation." He explained.

"Uryu, I . . . I . . ." she was at a loss for words again.

"You still love him, don't you?" Uryu asked.

Orihime couldn't hold it back anymore, the tears flooded down her face again as she nodded her head. She couldn't fool him or herself, Ichigo had always had the majority of her heart, always would. Uryu had been her attempt to find a substitute when she lost hope he'd return her feelings; but now that he did, those old hopes came back up and wouldn't be quieted easily. Uryu was a good person, she didn't want to hurt him like this, but she couldn't go through with the wedding now. She had never felt so torn, so bad about what had to happen.

"Here."

Orihime looked up to see Uryu holding out a bag. She took it and looked inside. There was a change of clothes for her, along with two plane tickets. She took the tickets in her hand and looked them over, 1st class for Hawaii. She looked back at Uryu who was still wearing his sad smile.

"He was first in your heart, and deep down inside I knew he always would be." He explained, "I wasn't really expecting this today but you should go before we're expected out there." He nodded his head back to the cathedral, "The tickets are for you two, you should get away until this all blows over, and until Arisawa-san calms down."

"Uryu, I'm sorry." Orihime apologized.

"Don't apologize; no one has control over their heart. But if he ever messes up, let me know and I'll beat the crap out of him for you."

Orihime smiled at him, one of the few true smiles she ever had. She leaned forward and planted a kiss on his cheek. When he left she set the bag down and started change, she needed to get out quickly.

-0-

_Ding! Dong! Ding! Dong! Ding! Dong! Ding! Dong! Ding! Dong! Ding! Dong!_

Ichigo looked up at the sky as the bells of the cathedral rang twelve times, signaling noon. He resisted the urge to run inside and stop everything, to shout out how much he loved her. He had decided he was going to be happy for them, and he'd be happy damn it. Ichigo couldn't move, but he didn't want to stay there. He turned a savage smile to sky, oh how fickle Fate was.

She was gone.

"Kurosaki-kun!"

Ichigo turned around in surprise, there she was, dressed casually like him and carrying a bag in one hand as she ran towards him. When she reached him she dropped her back and threw herself into him, planting her lips on his. Ichigo couldn't stop himself and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close and refusing to let go until he was satisfied. When they separated they still stuck close, Orihime reached up and put a hand on his cheek, and Ichigo did the same.

"Inoue, shouldn't you be-" he left his sentence unfinished and looked up at the cathedral.

"Uryu over heard you." She said, "He told me to follow you. We have no control over our hearts, and mine has always belonged to you." She reluctantly let him go and grabbed her bag, "Now we should really get going." And started to walk off.

"Why?" Ichigo asked, interlacing his fingers with her free hand, refusing to let her go.

"Well, we have a plane to catch, and I don't think you want to be around here when Tatsuki realizes what's happening."

"IIIIIIIIIIICHIIIIIIIIGOOOO!" as if for emphasis, Tatsuki's voice rang out through the area, sending a shiver up Ichigo's spine.

Despite the threat of death behind him, Ichigo couldn't stop smiling as he and Orihime ran down the street.

**End**


End file.
